The Red Headed League by Arthur Canon Doyle PDF Download
The plot opens with Watson, our narrator, and assistant of Sherlock Holmes, entering Holmes’s house and finding Holmes in deep conversation with a red-headed man named Jabez Wilson. Holmes asks Watson to stay and help him to solve Wilson’s case since it’s probably the most interesting mystery Holmes ever solved. You can download Red headed league pdf from here.
| Book title | The Red Headed League |
| Author | Arthur Canon Doyle |
| No. Of pages | 13 pages |
| PDF Size | 108 KB |
| Language | English |
| Category | Short stories, Novel, Crime |
Book Summary
Wilson tells that he is a pawnbroker and one month ago, he hired a young boy named Vincent Spaulding. Since the boy is inexperienced and needs a job only to learn business, he agreed to work for Wilson, on a below-average pay scale. However, Wilson observes that Spaulding has a keen passion for photography and therefore, he takes out some time to shoot random antique objects, lying in the basement of his shop.
One day, Spaulding shows Wilson an advertisement about the red-headed league which is established by a wealthy American. The league offers handsome amounts for small chores but only to the red-headed people, to promote their hobbies and interests. Spaulding encourages Wilson to grab this opportunity and also scoot to the league’s main office with Wilson.
Red headed Man
After waiting for several hours and competing with tens of red-headed men, Wilson finally meets the manager of the league, named Duncan Ross. Surprisingly, Duncan doesn’t give Wilson a very tough time and hires him promptly for copying text from encyclopedias. Since Wilson has to work only for four hours every day to earn an appealing amount, he finds the opportunity quite alluring and says yes to the offer.
Wilson keeps working for the league for eight weeks but today, when he goes to the office, he finds neither Duncan Ross nor the red-headed league anywhere to be found around. That’s the very reason why Wilson is at Holmes’s, to find out whether he has been fooled by a ridiculous prank or victimized by an evil crime. On listening to Wilson’s story, Holmes asks Wilson not to worry since he’d get his answers in a few days.
After Wilson leaves Holmes’s place, Holmes asks Watson to join him at a concert, being held on the other side of the city. On their way to the concert, Holmes and Watson pass by Wilson’s shop. Holmes knocks on the pavement with his stick and also knocks at the door of the shop to which Spaulding responds.
Alien
However, Holmes acts completely alien and asks for directions to a random place. When Spaulding heads back to the shop after giving Holmes directions, Holmes and Watson walk around the shop and find a bank right behind it. Holmes tells Watson that he has solved the mystery and that to know the answer, he should meet him at 10′ o’clock.
When Watson meets Holmes at his house at 10′ o’clock, he also finds two other men there, too; a detective and the bank manager. All four guys head to the bank and hide in a cellar. After some time, they see that the floor of the cellar is being opened and someone comes out of it. As soon as the first man comes out of the tunnel underneath, Holmes and the detective hop onto him whereas the second thief runs away.
The man Holmes and the detective capture comes out to be none other than the famous criminal, John Clay who disguised himself as Spaulding to use Wilson. Later on, Holmes reveals to Watson how he solved the mystery. While walking onto the pavement of Wilson’s shop, Holmes knocks it with his stick to check for hollowness. Whereas, the purpose behind asking Spaulding for directions was to check whether the jean he wears has worn out from the knees or not.
End of the story
And when Holmes found out that a bank is located at the back side of Wilson’s shop, it was when he solved the puzzle. Spaulding and Duncan Ross were planning to rob the bank and the only safe way to do this was to dig a tunnel from Wilson’s shop to the bank. So the red-headed league and that four-hour shift were part of the plan – to keep Wilson out of his shop for at least four hours to dig the tunnel. So, as soon as the tunnel was completed, the red-headed league disappeared.
